


Saving a Superhero

by sophisticatedloserchick



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 12:36:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11897874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophisticatedloserchick/pseuds/sophisticatedloserchick
Summary: Iris was just an intern working a hectic night at the hospital whose break was interrupted by a bleeding unconscious superhero





	Saving a Superhero

All Iris wanted was to have a nice, relaxing coffee break.

She was in the middle of one of the worst shifts of her life. A grueling fifteen hours where she’d been running off her feet dealing with every type of job. She bounced between being in the emergency room, to doing post op check ups, then working through piles of discharge paperwork. Anyone who said being an second year intern was hell didn’t know the half of it. Iris couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept more than four hours straight. Or had outside human contact beyond doctors and patients. Her life was a constant routine of dealing with an array of bodily fluids, stitching up damaged skin, setting broken bones.

She had few small pleasures remaining in her life. One of them was taking a cup of coffee and a chocolate chip muffin up to the roof of the hospital whenever she managed to sneak in a break.

Iris pushed through the metal door that led out to the roof. A sigh of relief actually escaping her lips. The cold breeze felt amazing against her heated skin. The lights of city burning bright against the night sky. She closed her eyes to listen to the hum of noise of the city. Iris immersed herself in the peace and quiet, completely different from hectic buzz of activity in the halls of the hospital.

Her plan was to sit down on the bench, left there for those with smoking habits, drink her coffee and eat her muffin. A plan that came to crashing halt when Iris saw someone already lying across the bench. Iris let out a sigh of frustration. Her day was bad enough without having the one good thing taken away from her.

She probably should have left and found another place to take her break. Iris however was nothing but persistent. She didn’t understand the meaning of giving up something that she wanted. Her determination got her through medical school while working a full time job. How she pushed until she got into the most competitive intern program in the country. No way she was letting someone take her bench.

“Excuse me?” Iris squinted through the darkness trying to make out who was there. “I hate to say this but I was wondering…”

As Iris stepped closer expecting to see a fellow exhausted intern passed out on the bench but that was not what she found.

“Oh my god,” Iris gasped out while dropping her coffee. “The Flash?”

The Flash let out a pained groan in response.

Iris stood there dumbstruck. The Scarlet Speedster, the hero of Central City, was currently passed out on a bench. The pained pinched look on his face indicated he wasn’t taking a nap either.

After the shock of having a superhero right in front of her Iris’s medical training kicked into gear. She rushed forward, her eyes quickly examining his body. Her hands lightly skimming over the hard leather of his costume. It didn’t take long for her to locate the gaping hole in his chest. Dark blood pooling out at the slightest touch.

“Oh no,” Iris breathed out, “That’s not good. That’s really not good.”

The Flash’s breathing started to become more labored. His eye lashes fluttering as he struggled to keep his eyes opened. Iris knew she had a very small window in which to help him.

“Flash can you hear me?” Iris circled her hand around his wrist.

The Flash turned his head but Iris could tell he was struggling to focus on her.

“Listen to my voice,” Iris tried to sound calm and in control. “You’re going to be okay. I’m going to help you.”

The Flash tried to get up but didn’t get far before letting out a grunt of pain.

“Don’t move,” Iris said firmly. “I don’t know what your injuries are but you probably shouldn’t move.”

Problem was Iris had no idea how she was going to get him down the stairs and back into the hospital. Iris didn’t know what happened to him but knew he needed medical attention fast. The last thing Iris wanted today was to let the hero of Central City die on her.

But there was no way she could do this on her own.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“This is unbelievable,” Julian hissed at her. “How did you rope me into this insanity? I do know if our resident finds out I’m blaming you. I will not be kicked out of this program because you decided to take in a injured superhero.”

Iris rolled her eyes ignoring Julian ranting. Her fellow intern enjoyed putting up a fuss but in the end he always came through with helping her.

With great effort the two of them managed to man handle the Flash down the flight of stairs and into the nearest empty hospital room. Iris wasted no time examining him once they deposited him into a bed. She brought out her stethoscope to press against his chest, surprised by what she heard.

“What is it?” Julian asked with open curiosity.

“His heart is beating so fast,” Iris replied. “Not humanly possible fast.”

“Well he is the Flash,” Julian deadpanned.

“Help me get this suit off,” Iris ignored his smug British face. “I need a closer look at his injuries.”

The two of them took several moments to struggle with the hard leather jacket. Fastenings were not easily perceived. Eventually they realized the suit was in two parts when they were able to find the zipper for the top half.

“Oh boy,” Iris let out a breath at the sight of his chest.

“That is a decent sized hole,” Julian got serious quickly. “He should be dead.”

“Well he is the Flash,” Iris countered.

Julian gave her an unimpressed look as they both put on surgical gloves.

Iris was about to take a closer look at the wound when the Flash started to thrash about on the table. Sparks of lighting coursing up his body. Julian let out a string of curses jumping back.

Without thinking Iris lunged forward to press a hand to the Flash’s shoulder, not the smartest plan considering he was an all powerful superhero who she could not control, to try hold him in place.

“Flash listen,” Iris called out, “We’re going to help you I promise you.”

The thrashing slowed but his body continued to tremor. Iris squeezed her hand on his shoulder reassuringly. His head turned to look directly at her for the first time. Even with a mask Iris could see his eyes. A pretty shade of green fanned by long lashes. She could see fear in his eyes but also a question of whether he could trust her.

Iris smiled gently hoping he could see in her face that he would be safe with her.

“Okay, lets do this.” Iris nodded her head to Julian. “Bring the tray and a lot of gauze.”

With cautious steps Julian walked closer bringing over the that had all the supplies they would need.

“Lets clear this blood away,” Iris grabbed packs of gauze to soak up the blood. “Then we can see what we’re dealing with.”

The two worked together get rid of the pooling blood. Iris felt through the shredded skin and could feel something lodged in his chest. If The Flash had any chance of survival they’d have to remove it before stitching him up. On the other hand they ran the risk of him bleeding out. Which meant they had a very slim chance of saving him. But Iris wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

“Julian use the forceps to hold the tissue open,” Iris ordered.

To her surprise Julian followed her orders. Using clamps to hold open the gaping hole in The Flash’s chest. Iris turned to her tray of surgical tools to grab the grasper, a tool that looked like a pair of scissors but with flattened pincers instead of blades.

“Hold him down please,” Iris asked.

Julian cautiously placed his hands on the Flash’s shoulders. Iris peered through the mess of tissue and blood to find the object lodged in his chest. Carefully Iris lowered the graspers over where she had felt the foreign object. With a deep breath Iris moved in to remove it from his chest.

The Flash head thrashed on the bed as he let out another pained groan.

“Almost there,” Iris said in her most calming voice. “So very close.”

With one last pull Iris took out the object. Immediately she tossed it into the tin of sterilized disinfectant. Through the swirls of blood Iris could see it was the shape of a bullet only it was glowing a eerie blue.

“What in the world is that?” Julian peered over.

Iris didn’t have a chance to answer. Too distracted by the Flash spontaneously vibrating. She turned to calm him down but it was too late. In a burst of yellow lighting he got up from bed and disappeared before Iris could blink her eyes. Nothing but a gust of wind blowing through her hair remained of his presence.

“West if a superhero ever shows up bleeding on the roof,” Julian glanced over at her. “Don’t ever drag me into it.”

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A week passed with no word from The Flash.

Iris knew he was okay thanks to reports on the nightly news. He was spotted downtown capturing Captain Cold hours after Iris had removed that strange bullet from his chest. Since then he’d been zipping around the city being the hero everyone needed.

To be honest Iris felt put out. Not that she expected recognition or anything. But it would be nice if inbetween capturing bank robbers and taking down meta-humans The Flash would have thought to zip by to say ‘Thank You’.

She’d then remind herself she didn’t become a doctor to get thank yous, she did it to help people. If she was being truthful Iris just wanted another chance to stare into those pretty green eyes again.But she had to let that go, she was too busy at work to pine after a superhero dressed in red leather.

She was in the middle of yet another crazy work day. She’d been running off her feet since her shift started. Once again she was heading up to the roof with a coffee and muffin in hand ready to enjoy her spare fifteen minutes. She’d been doing this a lot lately. Secretly hoping to catch sight of her favorite speedster. So far no luck.

Iris sat down on the bench. She sipped on her coffee while picking at her muffin. All the while doing her best to keep her thoughts off a certain scarlet speedster.

Which is why it took several long seconds for her sleep deprived brain to registered that the Flash was stranding right in front of her.

“Oh! You!” Iris started in surprise, jumping to her feet and in the process dropping her cup of coffee onto the ground.

Great, Iris thought to herself, just great.

She just had to be a clumsy mess in front of The Flash.

“Um, hi there.” The Flash awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Its okay,” Iris smiled. “Good to see you again. Not with a gaping hole in your chest which is a good sign.”

Iris let out an awkward laugh that she quickly smothered when he didn’t laugh too. The worst time for Iris’s doctor humor to rear its head. To her surprise though Iris swore she could see him smiling despite the shadows shrouding his face.

“Um here…let me…” The Flash gestured down to her spilled coffee. “I’ll be right back.”

Iris had no time to process anything as he zipped away then reappeared barely two seconds later.

“For you,” The Flash held out a coffee cup from Jitters with the steam still curling from it. “Thank you for the other night.”

As Iris reached up to grab the coffee her fingers gently brushed against the re-enforced leather of his gloves. A white spark of electricity passed between them causing both of them to jump back in surprise.

“Oh wow. Um…” The Flash awkwardly laughed. “That was weird.”

“Yeah weird,” Iris breathed out, her skin tingling where the lighting had coursed through her skin.

Now calming down Iris became more hyper aware of her appearance. Loose fitting purple hospital scrubs and her ratty old sweater. Her makeup had long ago smudged off and her hair was piled up in a messy bun. Definitely not the appearance she wanted to have when face to face with The Flash. He looked far more impressive in his dark red leather.

Yet despite her less than glamorous appearance Iris swore The Flash kept sneaking glances at her then would smile bashfully every time their eyes met.

Iris never thought herself capable of having that sort effect on a superhero.

“Seriously thank you,” The Flash eventually collected himself. “You saved me that night.”

“I did what any good doctor should do,” Iris shrugged. “Julian helped too.”

“But it was your voice.” The Flash insisted. “Your voice was what got through to me.”

Iris felt heat rise in her cheeks. No one had ever said something like that to her.

“Well you’re welcome,” Iris tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “If you ever get injured again feel free to collapse on that bench.”

“Well I wouldn’t want to interrupt your coffee break,” The Flash gave her a shy smile.

“Hmmm true,” Iris smiled at him teasingly. “Maybe you could join me for my coffee breaks instead?”

Iris had to admit watching the hero of Central City become a stuttering and blushing mess was a lot of fun. She took a long sip of the coffee The Flash had brought her feeling very pleased. She had a feeling this would be the start of something amazing.


End file.
